Captain talks and Hawks respond

Toews' words get through to his teammates as they seize the moment in Game 5

June 07, 2010|By Helene Elliott, Tribune newspapers

Jonathan Toews didn't have to shout to be heard.

The Blackhawks' captain spoke only a few quiet words after the team's morning skate but they were a declaration of how he and they would have to play Sunday in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.

They had not come to this point to accept being checked into submission, to give up on a shift or a period or accept anything less than the ultimate goal they had set for themselves.

"You don't play this far into the season into June for nothing," he said. "I think we can all as teammates and as a team look at each other and I think we can dig a little deeper and find a little extra something there. Because we know as a team how good we are and we haven't reached that limit yet."

They came close to that peak Sunday with a gritty, physical effort in a 7-4 victory at the United Center that put them within one win of the franchise's first Cup title since 1961. They can close this out Wednesday at Philadelphia or Friday at home.

"There's still another level to get to if we want to get that fourth win," Toews said, again setting the right and proper tone.

They got to their highest level of the series Sunday because they broke up their lines but remained unified in purpose and because they got nemesis Chris Pronger out of their hair and their faces.

The rugged Flyers defenseman was on the ice for six of the Hawks' goals and in the penalty box for the seventh, a glaring symbol of his team's surprising meekness in the face of the Hawks' constant pressure.

"We play like that every night, it's going to be tough to beat us," Hawks winger Patrick Kane said. "It didn't really matter who played with who tonight."

Actually, it did.

Coach Joel Quenneville, seeking to jolt his top line out of its collective funk, took it apart. He had Toews centering for Tomas Kopecky — whose name apparently means "please elbow me in the head" in the Flyers' Slovakian-to-English dictionary — and Marian Hossa.

Kane, whose speed had been blunted and who had been limited to a single breakaway goal, was placed alongside Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd. Dustin Byfuglien was aligned with Dave Bolland and Kris Versteeg. John Madden centered for Troy Brouwer and Ben Eager.

The changes produced a better balance, spreading out the Hawks' scoring potential and speed. Byfuglien had two goals and two assists, Kane had a goal and an assist, Versteeg had a goal and two assists and Sharp had one and one.

"I think it brought a lot of energy tonight," Versteeg said of switching the line combinations. "I think guys had a lot of energy and brought different elements to the game that maybe we haven't seen in the first few games, and it was big for us."

All that juggling wouldn't have meant much if the Hawks hadn't adopted Toews' attitude and decided to seize the moment.

After producing only one power-play goal in nine chances over the first four games the Hawks scored twice with the man advantage Sunday. They couldn't help but be inspired when Toews blocked a wicked shot by Pronger at 10:45 of the second period with the Flyers on a power play. Byfuglien, neutralized by Pronger until Sunday, played the entire game like a man possessed.

And, to the delight of the crowd of 22,305, Byfuglien unceremoniously dumped Pronger into the boards in the Flyers' zone at 6:15 of the second period, one of many pratfalls he endured Sunday while compiling a minus-5 defensive rating.

Pronger wasn't completely at fault. He had plenty of help from teammates who were out of position or weren't moving their feet and played a ragged defensive game from start to finish.

"Our team needs to be better, the whole group, I believe, needs to be better," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "When we're successful, we do it as team. When we lose and we have a night that's tougher, we do it as a team. The minus 5's, are they all his fault? No."

Pronger, so effective in stifling Byfuglien until this game, offered no excuses.

"They came out hard and we didn't answer their intensity or physicality," he said of the Hawks. "They came out hard, like they needed a win, and we didn't answer that.

"We didn't do a very good job in the neutral zone and didn't have a very good forecheck. As a consequence we were spending a lot of time in our own zone and what was inevitable happened. They did a good job getting through the neutral zone. We didn't do a very good job in the neutral zone or forcing them to make tougher decisions with the puck."

Because they didn't, they Flyers face another comeback situation that's tougher than even the 0-3 deficit they faced in the second round.

"We seem to like to make things difficult on ourselves," Pronger said.

In the final moments Sunday fans at the United Center began to chant "We want the Cup." Because Toews and his teammates reached a new peak Sunday the Cup could be coming to Chicago this week. That, certainly, is something to shout about.